Abstract

The technical changes in the local-elections law that were recently implemented have only had a negligible effect on the electoral results. As a matter of fact they did not bring about any change in the two major evils that beset local elections in Belgium. These are indeed dominated by a particular system of allocation of seats that systematically deviates from proportional representation and is heavily resented as such by a considerable part of the public opinion. The recent modifications allow a voting method that wilt - from now on and increasingly so in the future - give a possibility to particular factions that are slightly stronger within a certain party to conquer a far more than proportional share of the party seats andmight well come close to the total number of seats allocated to a certain party. It is indeed the democratic nature of the electoral system in Belgium that is at stake here.